by Charles Ray

Created on: October 22, 2009

A lot has been written about the dangers of kids spending too much time in front of television sets. We've heard it all; it stifles creativity, causes overweight, etc. Less has been written about the deleterious effects on kids who spend their lives on the other side of the screen. The children who are exploited for entertainment value; what is the impact on them?

The eight Gosselin children, on The Learning Channel's "Jon & Kate Plus 8," now "Kate Plus 8," have lived most of the last few years of their lives in the glare of TV lights and cameras, and one has to wonder how that is affecting their mental and emotional development. With the recent antics of Jon Gosselin, dissected in detail by the media on an almost daily basis, the impact on the older siblings has to be devastating.

For all of these children, regardless of age, so much attention is probably unsettling. The world view they are developing out of this environment is warped and as they grow into puberty and adulthood, one can predict emotional crises. Look at what has happened to far too many of the child movie and TV stars of the past. Drugs, alcohol, petty crime; in general, an inability to relate to the world in front of the screen, and living in the fantasy world created by those who wrote and directed the scripts.

So, for each one of the Gosselin kids, TLC's program is creating in them a ticking time bomb that is apt to explode unexpectedly in the future in unpredictable behavior caused by their inability to adapt to the 'real' world. The world they know now will be the world that exists in their mind, and when it collides with the world inhabited by their many viewers, chaos.

For the older kids, there is the added trauma of having to read or hear about their father's infantile antics. Children in divorce are always traumatized. When the breakup of parents is carried out in such a public forum, one can only wonder what it does to the mind of a child who sees the adults whirling around him and has no clue what is happening.

TLC should carefully consider the impact such exposure is likely to have on these kids in the future, rather than the popularity of the show and all the money it is making them. Those who argue that the family is making a lot of money from this show should consider how much of that money will have to be spent later on therapy.

The best thing for all concerned would be to craft some kind of support package to ensure the children are taken care of, and pull the plug on the whole shebang.

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